It is Week Three of the One Room Challenge. In typical fashion, I am not the least bit stressed or worried about the dining room situation (a vendor I'm working with emailed this morning saying 'I bet you are so wrecked working on this!') I'm not. Its cool. Its all going to come together in it's own time.
Here are some more shots of the mural happening in the dining room I shared from last week.
I love those big fluffy pink peonies!
The girls at Shan Lou made this tassel for the space. It originally was supposed to go on the sideboard, but got a little lost on it. I moved it to the living room desk that belonged to my husband's Great Grandmother. The pop of color coupled with marbled paper backing has brightened up the desk.
Amanda Louise and I selected fabrics for the couch pillows. I am decidedly NOT a color person when it comes to my house, so this is pushing me in a new direction. I love the blue chinoiserie print, and the green and white fabric will end up being worked in as cording.
Dana Gibson, who designed the leopard pillow (which I've loved and wanted forever!) is teaming up with us and sending a treasure trove of goodies to sprinkle around the space. She designs colorful, painterly, fun creations and I can't wait to see how they soften some of my more classic furnishings.
Dana is sending us this Ginger Jar. You can not go wrong with white and gold in my book - they are my go to 'finishing' colors for paintings.
We also decided on using this Chinoiserie Fabric to back the china cabinet in my kitchen. I think it will be a great choice because the colors are muted and will add some dimension to the otherwise blah space.
Now lets talk about fails.
I had the (seemingly) great idea to create a textile to use in the dining room. We decided it should go on the chairs and be a leopard print. When I got in the swatches, I immediately did not connect with it and felt like the black, grey, and browns really made the wooden chairs feel so old and dark. Also, lets be honest: this does not look like leopard print. Maybe snake skin, but not leopard.
We both agreed it was not an ideal match and were tinkering around with some lovely malachite-inspired green fabric. We decided that fabric would be the better fit for the chairs: the lighthearted, modern design would be a nice juxtaposition against the classic lines of the dining room table.
Now, for the art in the dining room. It really takes me ages to figure out what I need when it comes to my house. Put me in another house, and I'm decisive. Put me in my own, and I am a nervous wreck.
Finally I decided on the canvas size I need for the dining room space. I'm in a time crunch, so I'm actually going to paint over the above painting for whatever ends up going on the wall here. And of course I'm totally waxing and waning on the subject for the painting. Maybe by next week I can let you in on more.
Let's talk about those lampshades on those cool, vintage solid brass lamps my Grandmother gave me. They needed an update, so I took them over to Vino and van Gogh, gave them a swish of blue-black inky paint, and now the lamps are on their way. Probably not done yet, but getting there.
And the last thing brewing this week is we've partnered with the lovely crew over at Sasha Nichols to send us monogrammed dinner plates.
They are decidedly classically elegant: I can not wait to see how these end up looking on the table.
We are chugging along, aren't we? Next week I will share an art update, some goodies my friends at Croghan's in Charleston are sharing with us, and the great hunt for a mirror for the dining room. I probably should have been hunting earlier. Whoops!